Iowa-UNI summer reunion good for this winter

Iron sharpens iron.

The return of Northern Iowa's basketball players to the Prime Time League this summer after a 2-year absence can only be good for the Panthers. And for the Iowa Hawkeyes.

The PTL was a watered-down version of its old self in 2012 and 2013 after UNI Coach Ben Jacobson chose to hold his players out of the league. A new NCAA rule took effect in 2012 that allowed college coaches two hours of summer instruction per week with their players.

'You have summer school, study table, some individual workouts, and a team workout one of those nights,” Jacobson said this week, 'and obviously they're in the weight room three or four days a week.”

Thinking several round-trips a summer from Cedar Falls to the PTL's North Liberty base added up to too much of a summer time-commitment for his players, he dropped the summer league.

What happened was PTL founder/commissioner Randy Larson and Iowa Coach Fran McCaffery did some bending to lure the Panthers back into the league. Larson agreed to play two games in Waterloo's very nice Cedar Valley Sportsplex, with the second round of them Thursday night.

McCaffery signed off on having his players make two round-trips from Iowa City to Waterloo. And, everyone agreed to have just one game per week instead of two on some of the weeks, one on the others.

The increased quality of competition is good for the players of both teams. Each of the six PTL rosters have two Iowa and two UNI players. That makes on-court matchups better.

'They're good,” said Iowa forward Jarrod Uthoff, who has 70 points and 38 rebounds through three PTL games and has looked authoritative. 'They bring a lot of talent to this league.”

'It makes the league 10 times better,” added Hawkeyes senior Aaron White.

It certainly doesn't hurt new Hawkeyes like junior college transfer Trey Dickerson and freshman Dominique Uhl to test and get tested by veteran Division I players before their first D-I seasons.

Don't be surprised if UNI is very good in the coming season. Jacobson's top six scorers from last season return, and will be joined by Virginia transfer Paul Jesperson, red-shirt freshman post player Bennett Koch, and freshman guard Wyatt Lohaus of Iowa City West.

Koch is the brother of former Panther starters Adam and Jake Koch. Lohaus is one of four Cedar Rapids/Iowa City players in UNI's rotation. 'In the last month of last season,” Jacobson said, 'our starting backcourt was Wes (Washpun), Jeremy (Morgan) and (Matt) Bohannon. Wes and Bo were sophomores and Jeremy was a true freshman.”

Washpun is from Cedar Rapids Washington, Morgan from Iowa City West, and Bohannon from Linn-Mar. Bohannon is easily the PTL's leading scorer at 34 points per game. Morgan looks stronger and more assertive this summer, and could end up making Iowa fans wish he were playing for his hometown university.

Lohaus, meanwhile, has a PTL-high 21 assists through three games.

'We've got a good group,” Jacobson said.

The last time all three of Iowa's state schools reached the NCAA men's tournament was 2005. There may be a 10-year reunion of sorts next March.

l Comments: (319) 368-8840; mike.hlas@sourcemedia.net